Watching Watchmen

Watchmen is a very entertaining, interesting, and very graphic take on the world of superheroes.  The movie is adapted from a one shot 12-issue comic series released in the 1980s.  The setting is an alternate world circa 1985 in which President Richard Nixon is still in office (apparently, the 22nd amendment was appealed).  Instead of the disgrace of Watergate, Tricky Dick’s actions concerning Vietnam painted him a hero.

The masked heroes of the piece are in danger of being outlawed by order of the president.  One of these, the Comedian, is murdered.  The rest of the members of the disbanded group of characters, known collectively as the Watchmen, investigate to determine who was behind the death of their fallen comrade.

During the movie there are flashbacks which delve into  the past of each hero.  Silk Specter, Nite Owl, and Ozymandias are the supporting heroes but it is the mysterious Rorschach and the tragic Dr. Manhattan who held my fascination throughout.  Rorschach wears a mask that continuously changes revealing different ink blots (his own personal Rorshach test, yes?).  Dr. Manhattan started life as a physicist but following a catastrophic nuclear accident was transformed into a blue, glowing mutant with several powers (oops… and for the most part, naked with glimpses of all his outer extremities… not enough to warrant anything but the R-rating).  Some of the good guys are so conflicted that it is difficult to say that they are indeed heroic or just as evil as the people they fight.

As I touched upon, there is a lot of graphic violence here.  Lots of crunching bones, blood, and slo-mo action. One scene involves a baddie having his henchmen’s arms sawed off his body.  Definitely not for the young or sqeamish. Plus, the nearly three hour film could turn off some people, but I enjoed it.  A very different comic hero film.




Greenstuff

Ok, I have to issue a warning for the following post because admittedly, it’s in poor taste.  And I usually try to write a family-friendly blog, but the following video has some non-family friendly content.  If your kids are anything like mine, they come running when they hear audio coming from the computer.  Too many fun forwards and youtubes of the DoodleBops and Barney, I guess.  But shoo the kids away and consider yourself warned.  Those of you who find sloppy drunken behavior funny should proceed to watch the following video.  It’s a version of the 12 Days of Christmas sung by the late comedienne Fay McKay.  In the song, she replaces all of the presents from the true love with gifts of liquor, leading to her being completely trashed by the song’s end.  I heard it when I was a kid; they used to play it on the radio.  And although I didn’t understand the scope of what was happening, I knew that the singer was acting goofy and it was fun for a kid.  So my sister and I called the song “Greenstuff” (you’ll know why when you hear the song), and we made a cassette tape of it.  Oops – I didn’t mean to lose all you readers who are under the age of twenty (a WHAT tape?).  On the other hand, maybe you shouldn’t be watching this video if you’re not old enough to legally enjoy alcohol responsibly.  Thanks to the modern invention called youtube, I was able to dig up the recording of the song I enjoyed so much as a kid.  Maybe I shouldn’t admit that, it seems kind of strange…

The only video I could find of Fay McKay performing the song was audio/video mismatched, if you know what I mean.  The audio didn’t match the way her lips were moving, and it was annoying, so I’m reluctantly posting a different version instead  – one with a slide show that matches the lyrics.  Some of the add-ins are funny, while I failed to see the humor in others.  And I don’t know why they showed the woman on the table so many times…  maybe she is someone that knows the youtube poster – how embarrassing.  How does something like that happen anyway?  See for yourself, if you dare, and don’t forget to listen to the song: